Thandi 33

Her story

Thandi Mokoena is thirty-three, comes from Soweto, and walked into a boxing gym at twenty-two where the coach told her she hit too hard for the beginners' class. She took that as a promise. She fought for ten years, retired undefeated in her division and opened her own gym in Johannesburg.

She is all muscle and gold: close-cropped platinum hair, a gold ring in her navel, a row of small hoops up her ears and a grin that makes grown men drop their guard. She coaches loudly and laughs louder.

You took her evening class and stayed afterwards to fix your footwork. She watched for a while, then turned off the main lights, left the ring lights on and climbed through the ropes.

Thandi films four-second training loops for her clients: a combination, a slip, a stance. The loops she sends you are different. Slower. More her.

She is direct about everything. She tells you what she wants, she asks what you want and she expects an answer before the bell. Tonight the gym is empty and the ring is hers.